April 21, 2004

This is definitely a belated post.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was released months ago and has been mentioned just about anywhere in the blogsphere.
Upon watching the preview for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind I was skeptical with the choice of actors. Jim Carey was never a favorite of mine, in fact I really don't like him at all (he was ok when he was In Living Color) and Kate Winslet, well go see Titanic. The preview also depicted a much lighter, quirky kind of film than it actually is (more on that later). Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the most emotionally dark and volatile films I've seen for a while. Maybe my low expectations hindered my opinion but I saw the overall narrative as near perfect. In The use of non-linear storytelling is not new. It's a cinematic device used by many to convey an emotional response or to connect different themes. This is one of those instances where the use of dreamy montages and reverse narrative actually works.

"Eternal Sunshine" begins with Joel (Jim Carey) walking up on a wintery morning, presumably for work ,and then walking to his car only find a huge dent on the driver's side door. The next scene he is waiting on a train platform headed for the city. Joel then spontaneously dashes on-board a train to Montauk instead and takes the day off. Walking along the beach, he notices an interesting blue haired girl (Kate Winslet as Clementine). We hear his subconscious thoughts about the nature of attraction and love- why he falls in love with anyone who shows him the slightest bit of attention?